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The power of the presidency always lures those seeking reflected glory. And
Donald Trump’s riotous palace court – renowned for lax Oval Office walk-in
privileges – was a pageant of characters who might normally have gotten nowhere
near a president.

But the price for proximity to power in the most scandalous presidency of modern
times came due just before midnight on Monday when 18 of Trump’s former aides,
officials, lawyers and associates were indicted alongside him over their efforts
to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia. They were the latest members of the
former president’s inner circle to find out that associating with Trump could
put them on cracking legal ice. At least until now, their patron has always
seemed to skate free. But Trump is now staring up at his own astonishing
mountain of 91 criminal charges in four separate indictments – an unparalleled
and dubious record for an ex-president.



The list of co-defendants in the Fulton County case includes Rudy Giuliani, the
former New York City mayor who became a hero on September 11, 2001, for filling
a national leadership vacuum amid the worst terror attack on the US in history.
Giuliani – who later served as Trump’s attorney and political fixer, notably in
events in Ukraine that led up to Trump’s first impeachment – is now ironically
charged with violation of Georgia racketeering laws, the federal version of
which he used as a high-powered and pioneering prosecutor who took down mafia
dons and their networks in the 1980s. The man once known as “America’s mayor” is
also charged with multiple other counts including false statements and
conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer.

CNN reported Tuesday that Giuliani, who amplified Trump’s false claims of fraud
after the 2020 election in a series of bizarre and unhinged appearances, faces
hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees – a situation exacerbated by his
involvement in several other cases and that has left him in financial
difficulties, according to his lawyers. But the quintessential New York City
bruiser insisted Tuesday, “I’m the same Rudy Giuliani that came after the
mafia,” defending his actions as those of an attorney legally representing his
client. “I’m anxious to fight this case,” he said on WABC radio. “We’re going to
beat these fascists into the ground.”



Charged alongside Giuliani is former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a
former member of the House Freedom Caucus from North Carolina, who was portrayed
as a nexus of Trump’s election meddling effort by the House select committee
that investigated the January 6, 2021, mob attack on the US Capitol. Normally,
the indictment of the top White House official, whose job was to be the
gatekeeper to the president, would shake Washington to its core. But the capital
has reverberated for months with historic criminal charges leveled against the
president he was supposed to be protecting. Meadows on Tuesday filed to move his
case from Fulton County, Georgia, to the federal system – a step the former
president is also expected to take soon. Convictions in the federal courts could
open the way to pardons by Trump if he wins another White House term or by a
Republican president – a route that would not be open to him in state courts.



There is increasing speculation over why Meadows was charged in Georgia but not
in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal investigation into Trump’s election
stealing efforts. Legal experts wonder whether he could be cooperating with that
probe in a sign of peril for the former president.

Other notable figures among those charged in Georgia include John Eastman, a
former attorney for Trump who allegedly tried to convince then-Vice President
Mike Pence that he had the power to interfere with the congressional
certification of election results. Eastman’s attorney, Harvey Silverglate, on
Tuesday described the Fulton County indictment as a stunt to criminalize the
advocacy of lawyers. “This is a legal cluster-bomb that leaves unexploded
ordinances for lawyers to navigate in perpetuity,” he said.

Sidney Powell – who made unfounded claims of election fraud that even Trump
acknowledged to others sounded “crazy,” according to Smith’s federal indictment
– was also charged. She faces racketeering and conspiracy charges.

All of the defendants, including Trump, are entitled to the presumption of
innocence and none have yet entered pleas in the case. But all of them now
potentially face months or years embroiled in what could be a highly complex
case that will likely involve massive legal bills, extreme personal stress and
potentially jail time if convicted – a process that will make the days when they
palled around with a president seem like another world. Trump has pleaded not
guilty to three previous criminal indictments.





TRUMP’S INNER CIRCLES HAVE LONG FACED LEGAL PROBLEMS

Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case are not the first to find out that the
ex-president’s intolerance for the rules and conventions that normally constrain
presidencies can lead them into treacherous waters. Trump once vowed to bring
only “the best people” to Washington, but his acolytes often find themselves
dragged into his legal storms.



For example, two of Trump’s other associates – his personal aide Walt Nauta and
Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira – have been sucked into the
investigation over Trump’s mishandling of national security documents. Both men
have pleaded not guilty.

Some of those who flocked to Trump at the beginning of his involvement in
presidential politics also got in trouble with the law, often not directly for
acts taken in conjunction with him but after sometimes attracting the interest
of authorities investigating other matters surrounding the then-president.
Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was sentenced to 47 months in
federal prison for defrauding banks and the government and for failing to pay
taxes on millions of dollars in income earned from Ukrainian political
consulting.



Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to
lying to the FBI about conversations with Russia’s ambassador to Washington.
Both men had been swept up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation
into the 2016 Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

Trump’s former political guru, Steve Bannon, was sentenced to four months in
jail last year for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena to appear
before the House January 6 committee. He has appealed his conviction. Bannon
faces another trial in Manhattan next year in a fundraising fraud case.
Prosecutors have accused Bannon and others of defrauding donors in a fundraising
effort called “We Build the Wall.” Bannon has pleaded not guilty to multiple
counts of conspiracy, money laundering and scheme to fraud.

In yet another case involving a confidant of the ex-president, his long-time
chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was sentenced by a New York judge
earlier this year to five months in jail for his role in a decade-long tax fraud
scheme after testifying as the state’s witness against the Trump Organization.



And in one of the most well-known cases of one of Trump’s men tumbling into a
legal pit, his former attorney and self-described fixer Michael Cohen served two
years in jail and one year of home confinement after pleading guilty to nine
federal crimes including tax fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance
violations for helping pay off two women who threatened to go public with past
alleged affairs with Trump before the 2016 election. Unlike many of Trump’s
associates who got crosswise with the law, Cohen pointed the finger directly at
his former boss, saying he facilitated the payoffs “in coordination with and at
the direction of” Trump. The ex-president has denied the affairs but is due to
go on trial in March after being indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin
Bragg in a case arising from a hush payment to former adult film actress Stormy
Daniels.

One huge worry for Trump, given the large number of people indicted in the
Georgia case, is whether some will cooperate with prosecutors in order to try to
help themselves. In the past, Trump has been able to purchase the loyalty of
business colleagues and used his pardon powers extravagantly as president. In
one of his last acts as commander in chief, for instance, he pardoned Bannon on
a previous federal fraud charge. He had earlier pardoned Flynn, Manafort and
longtime ally Roger Stone.



Trump, now a private citizen, is no longer in a position to reward such loyalty
among his inner circle, though he might be tempted to dangle pardon offers based
on the possibility of him winning the presidency in 2024. But even if he is
elected again, federal pardons won’t help absolve associates caught up in the
Georgia case, thanks to the founders’ insistence on dividing power between the
federal government and the states. Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America,
however, spent more than $40 million on legal fees for the ex-president and his
associates during the first half of the year, sources told CNN last month.

The huge breadth of the Fulton County case brought by District Attorney Fani
Willis – who said Monday that she plans to try the 19 defendants together –
turns a spotlight on the extended cadre of allies who allegedly helped Trump in
his bid to trash democracy. But with such a huge charging sheet, it could be
months or longer until the case reaches court – meaning that the 2024 election
could be long gone before it reaches a jury.

Former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday that he wouldn’t
be surprised if it took Willis two years to bring the vast racketeering case to
court.

“If it takes two years, heaven forbid that Trump wins the presidency, then there
will be a fight to the Supreme Court over whether she can proceed against a
sitting president during his term,” Cobb said, noting that while federal
prosecutors could not pursue a president during his term, the capacity of state
prosecutors to do so had not been resolved.

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 * Donald Trump's advisors say he's is "very upset" that Rudy Giuliani was
   indicted, Maggie Haberman told CNN. 
 * But not enough to pay his outstanding legal bills, Haberman added.
 * Giuliani was indicted alongside Trump in Georgia on Monday night over their
   attempt to overturn the 2020 election. 

Full screen


1 of 7 Photos in Gallery©Getty


WHOOPSIE! TRUMP'S CLASSIFIED DOCS SPILLED ALL OVER THE FLOOR AT MAR-A-LAGO, FEDS
ALLEGE, AND OTHER CHOICE PHOTOS FROM TRUMP'S RECENT INDICTMENT

 * On Friday, officials unsealed the newest indictment against former president
   Donald Trump.
 * The indictment includes numerous photos of classified documents stored at
   Mar-a-Lago.
 * In one photo, the contents of the boxes are all over the floor. Darn!

On Friday, officials unsealed the latest indictment against former president
Donald Trump. The federal charges — 37 counts in all — relate to Trump's
handling of classified material.

Prosecutors allege that Trump broke the law when he removed highly sensitive
material from the White House and took it to Mar-a-Lago. Trump is said to have
taken "newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official
documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes."

This stash allegedly included "hundreds of classified documents" from agencies
including the CIA, NSA, and the Department of Justice. 

You might think, given the precious nature of the material, that it was
squirreled away in some top-secret location. You would be wrong. 

See More


Former President Donald Trump's advisors say he was "really worried" and "really
upset" that his longtime lawyer and ally Rudy Giuliani would be indicted as one
of the 18 of Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia RICO case, Maggie Haberman
told CNN. 

But not enough to pay him what he's still owed, she noted.

Haberman, a senior political correspondent at the New York Times who's reported
on Trump's inner circle, spoke to CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday night after
Trump was criminally charged again — this time in a Georgia indictment that was
unsealed late Monday.

"One of the ironies right now in the situation around Donald Trump is you will
hear some of his advisors say 'He's really upset that Rudy got indicted,' or,
leading into this, 'He was really worried about Rudy,'"  Haberman told Collins. 




"But not so worried that he was going to pay Giuliani's legal bills," Haberman
said.



Haberman added that those close to Giuliani will still try to blame the
Republican National Committee or former Trump aides for the fact that his legal
bills remain unpaid.

But "This is Trump," she said. "According to my reporting, it was Trump who
didn't want Giuliani paid unless Giuliani delivered on his promises, and
obviously that didn't happen," Haberman said. 

Collins pointed out that Giuliani, who once pioneered using RICO law to
prosecute organized crime in New York, is now charged with a very similar law in
Georgia. 

Haberman noted that New York voters who have grown to dislike Giuliani see this
as "the ultimate irony," but his supporters in the state see this as a
"tragedy." 

"It is surreal hearing him say he is really excited about this indictment
because I can't imagine that he ever thought it would be fun, or engaging, or a
fun fight to be accused of racketeering," Haberman said, calling Giuliani a
"renowned national figure for busting mobsters using a similar law."  

Haberman also reflected on how the former mayor of New York City ended up here. 

"That he has, in a quest basically to be relevant to stay around former
President Trump, ended up here is very upsetting to the people who still care
about him," she said. 






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